DHS faces possible shutdown

The Department of Homeland Security faced the likelihood of a partial shutdown Friday, after the House of Representatives voted down a bill to keep the agency running for three weeks.

Funding for DHS expires at midnight.

Even in the event of a shutdown many DHS operations will continue running. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and enforcement operations will continue and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue processing applications and petitions. E-Verify, on the other hand, will likely be put on hold, and the CIS Ombudsman’s Office will likely close until funding is restored.

The battle over DHS funding stems from Obama’s executive actions to provide relief from deportation to roughly 5 million undocumented immigrants, with Congressional Republicans aiming to tie DHS funding to reversing Obama’s policies.

The debate over funding continued even as the Obama administration backed off from implementing the measures after a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling temporarily blocking a key part of the program last week.

BAL will continue to pay close attention to this and other developments in Congress and will provide updates as additional information becomes available. For more frequent updates and news, follow us on our BAL Government Affairs Twitter page.

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